Selentuil, this is the official blog for Varon, unpublished author, and founder of Edradria Studios. I'm Varon by the way. Here I'll blog about writing, the writing process, some reviews if I'm stuck, lessons learned from writing, SCUBA diving eventually, and (hopefully) about my sailboat which I'll own in the future, and all that jazz.
Signing out, Varon

Saturday, September 3, 2011

History of Action/Adventure

Technically, action/adventure is the oldest genre outside of
historical records. The story of Gilgamesh would be the oldest recorded
action/adventure story. However, I'll stick to modern action/adventure
which sprouted in the previous century and a half....
The originators are the penny dreadfuls (England) and dime novels
(American) as well as newspaper serials (Like Wells' War of the
Worlds). Dime novels often told embellished accounts of real people;
such as Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickhock, Jesse James, etc. Penny
dreadfuls were British and heroes often feature Robin Hood type
characters, highway robbers, etc. Newspaper serials were short parts of
a longer work; in action/adventure, the best well known is King
Solomon's Mines. It has become a classic. These lasted until the early
20th century.

These were published very cheaply, and very quickly.

Then came the pulps. (My personal favorite era)
The pulps were magazines printed on cheap paper made of wood pulp and
told the tales of Western heroes, detectives, and eventually, the
precursor to superheroes. These lasted from 1896 to the 1950s. Haggard
(Author of King Solomon's Mines) was a pioneer in this genre as well.
The genre was filled with Westerns and mysteries. Tarzan was created
in 1912 as a serial which went for 22 novels. Then, The Shadow
appeared on the radio show Detective Story Hour as the narrator. The
publishers soon began receiving requests for The Shadow's stories of
his own. Quickly, he earned his own magazine. (Some of his radio
episodes can be found here at a link I'll post at the end). The Shadow
magazine was published for 325 issues, the longest running pulp
magazine ever. Then came the space opera hero Buck Rogers. Doc Savage
soon followed. Doc Savage, the Superman precursor, and one of the
biggest heroes. The Shadow was dark, mysterious, and dangerous, much
like Batman. The Shadow is the archetype of dark, night-walking
vigilantes. Doc Savage, on the other hand, was strong, heroic looking,
extremely strong, extremely smart, and dedicated to crime-fighting. He
acted with the approval of the government, and rarely killed. He's the
archtype for Superman.

There were other big ones of course; the Phantom Detective, Operator #
5, G-8 and his Flying Aces, John Carter (Of Mars, yes), Zorro, and the
Black Bat. Eventually, they were fazed out by superheroes.

Superheroes really kicked off in the 30s and have lasted in some way,
since. Batman and Superman kicked the genre off and it's grown ever
since. It deserves its own article.

James Bond novels were written about now. The super-spy. Excellent at
disposing of insane enemies. Excellent at driving. Ladies man, of
course. He's also a transition between the optimistic pulps and darker
side of the Vietnam and Post-Vietnam era. He is a gentleman, (Martinis
shaken, not stirred) yet ruthless.
Then came the 60s; flower-power, anti-war, and nuclear fear.
Action/adventure took a darker edge with Aggressor novels. They were
dark, and violent.
Then the 70s was another transition, to the 80s. Star Wars came out in
1977, a beacon of hope in what I've heard, for SF, was pretty bleak.
The 80s were different. Comics, and Batman in particular, were dark
and violent. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in
this decade. TV shows included The A-Team, Michael Knight, and other
somewhat cheesy action shows. It's also brought about the variety in
modern action/adventure.

Since then, we've diversified. The original pulp heroes have gone out
of print and new writers have picked them up. Writers inspired by those
and Indy began creating their own heroes and stories. Things can be
pulpy and optimistic, dark and gritty, or somewhere in between.

More details?

The Shadow radio episodes
(http://www.oldtimeradiofans.com/template.php?show_name=The%20Shadow)

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About Me

Howdy, I'm a teenage writer who loves to write rip-roaring yarns in every part of the galaxy and time that have as much depth as "Casablanca". (And be allowed to tell tall tales) I write for many reasons, one is to, of course, write books that want to be told, as well as being published and I eventually want to earn enough money from them to buy a sailing yacht and cruise the globe in it. Glad you stopped by and feel free to leave a comment.